Bass Player: Billy Sheehan Originally the bass player for a lesser known band called Talas, Sheehan came to the public eye through his involvement in the band that singer David Lee Roth formed after leaving Van Halen. Alongside guitarist Steve Vai, Sheehan’s two handed tapping on the band’s 1986 album ‘Eat ‘Em And Smile’ was…

Trumpet solo: Miles Davis Another legendary horn solo transcribed for bass. This is the iconic trumpet solo from the tune ‘All Blues’ from the 1959 Miles Davis LP ‘Kind Of Blue’. This is one of the most celebrated and best selling Jazz albums of all time and features the bass playing of Paul Chambers but…

Bass Player: Steve Swallow Another transcription from Swallow’s ‘Real Book’ CD. This is the opening solo on the track ‘Let’s Eat’. Swallow is unusual in Jazz and his use of the pick makes his playing very guitaristic with lots of ghost notes. His mastery of melodic playing is well-established and his ability to weave beautiful…

Bass Player: Steve Swallow Steve Swallow is something of an enigma in Jazz; and electric bass player who uses a pick. Having started his career on double bass (he played and recorded with the Jimmy Guiffre Trio – worth looking up), he swapped to electric after hearing guitarist Joe Beck play the instrument in a…

Bass Player: Alain Caron Alain Caron (born May 5, 1955) is a French Canadian bassist. The youngest of 11 children, Caron started playing bass at age 11 and began pursuing jazz at age 15. His musical skills were formalised by correspondence lessons with the jazz improvisation teacher |Charlie Banaco and by attending a summer session…

Bass Player: Renaud Garcia Fons Garcia-Fons started his musical studies at an early age. At five years old he picked up playing the piano, switched to classical guitar at eight, then turned to rock in his teens, and finally settling for the upright bass when he was 16. He got formal musical training at the…

Baritone Saxophone solo: Gerry Mulligan It is always good to transcribe and to learn solos by other instrumentalists than bass players and the following represents Bilbo’s first attempt to transcribe a full saxophone solo. Transcribing modern saxophonists can be fairly problematic for a bass player as players like Michael Brecker, Joe Lovano and Chris Potter…

Bass Player: Jaco Pastorius/Joe Zawinul The sleevenotes on the Weather Report album are unclear on the issue and it doesn’t clarify whether the ‘bass’ line on this tune involves Jaco in any way. Legend has it that Jaco was already becoming unreliable and Joe Zawinul, the leader and keyboard player of Weather Report had, by…

Bass Player: Eric Revis One of the most talented and accomplished musicians of his generation, Grammy Award-winning bassist and composer Eric Revis has firmly established himself as an important voice in jazz. Branford Marsalis states, “Eric’s sound is the sound of doom; big, thick, percussive.” Scores of musicians across various disciplines agree. Revis has performed…

Bass Player: Jeff Berlin Bilbo admits to being massively influenced by Jeff Berlin during his formative years and spent many hours playing cassettes back and forth trying to figure out the details. Berlin’s lines with Bruford are often complex and executed as such as pace that this approach was limited and Bilbo recalls the frustration…